Food Allergies in Children Cost U.S. $25 Billion Each Year: Study

Not only are food allergies in children becoming increasingly more common, a new study shows that they're also very expensive, between medical costs, purchasing allergy-free foods and other out-of-pocket expenses. In fact, a new study reveals that these children end up costing parents and the U.S. health care system $25 billion a year.

On average, a child with food allergies costs $4,184 a year, with $931 coming straight out of their parents' pockets, according to the study published in the Sept. 16 issue of JAMA Pediatrics.

"In summary, childhood food allergy in the United States places a considerable economic burden on families and society," concluded the study's authors, reports CBS News.

In the study, Chicago researchers surveyed 1,643 parents who have a child with an allergy to foods like peanuts, milk and eggs. Caregivers were asked how much they spent on doctor's visits, trips to the emergency room, and special foods and treatments. In addition, parents were asked to document days that they missed at work to care for a sick child and how often they changed or quit their jobs to care for their children.

"Kids with food allergies don't tend to have long hospital stays, but your expenses come in other ways," says lead author Ruchi Gupta, a pediatrician at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago and a professor at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, according to USA Today. Parents "end up having to spend extra on foods to make sure they are safe," she says. Often, Gupta adds, that means relying on expensive specialty stores, such as Whole Foods, rather than cheaper grocery stores.

Roughly 37 percent of parents in the survey who said they spent money on special food spent an average of $756 a year. Other out-of-pocket expenses included medical bills and co-pays, and the costs of everything from extra child care to special summer camps.

About 9 percent of parents in the survey said they restricted their career choices or gave up, lost or changed jobs due to a child's food allergy. Those so-called "opportunity costs" were the largest in the survey, averaging $2,399 a year for each allergic child and more than $26,000 for families who made the changes.